flagrag

As much as I think Craig Cook does not want to ride in the PL again if he continues to not getting picked in Poland then he may have to reconsider as is not riding enough to remain sharp for the EL and also I am sure he do with the extra income. The lower league Polish clubs are well known to sign riders promising meetings every week but then only pick UK based riders for a few selected matches I know Simon Stead,Danny King and Ben Barker have had the same with only riding 2-3 meetings normally at the end towards the play offs. Its not an option for Cook to go back to Edinburgh this season anyway as your not allowed to sign for clubs that have the same regular race night which both Belle Vue and Edinburgh now have in Friday's. So if he does want more racing it will have to be elsewhere would the Panthers fit Cook and Ellis in by replacing MPT and Porsing ?

Jenga- If we are both thinking of the same rider who has been let down by rides in Poland on Sunday's then yes he would be an excellent if not expensive signing for the Panthers but could turn the season around. I just have a feeling though this rider may prefer to wait and see if can get picked in Poland a bit longer

With the weather being pretty good yesterday I made the trip up to Alwalton and I am very glad that I did there was some excellent racing with plenty of passing. Somerset rode as a team and everybody chipped in with valuable points apart from Zach W who was having bike problems. I was very impressed by both BWD and Jake Alllen who both rode the track very well. For the Panthers MPT was very poor and seemed uninterested and Grondal did not seem like the rider he was last season. Lambert was his typical self great when a bit of grip then not much and has poor away form. From what I got told after the meeting team changes will be happening and the name mentioned to me was Adam Ellis but club are unsure on costings as unlikely to be able to do all 3 leagues and would need to drop NL so they will need to make it worth his while as am sure he is on very good money at Eastbourne now. I understand there is an BSPA agreement that NL clubs release riders if they can get a PL place so have to wait and see. Another option that may become available is N Klindt who doesn't seem to be getting picked for Poland at the moment so if that continues he may consider PL again

Thank you very much everybody that has already done this and it can be continued to be done until next Wednesday. The figures for the opening match were encouraging considering up against FA cup football on BBC 1 we have seen quite a bit of time shifted viewing of the Speedway e.g viewers watched the football live but recorded the speedway then watched the Speedway back later on Wed or on Thursday

I am after a bit of a favour from as many as possible Speedway fans that have their TV provided by Sky and have a sports subscription We need as many people as possible to go into catch up on their Sky box then select Sky sports scroll across to more or by day. We need you to then download the TV match from Wednesday once it's done just watch a min of 1 minute then you can delete it again. The purpose of this is the On Demand team are doing a review of the catch up service as its not possible to have every programme on there . They are monitoring the amount of downloads that are being done of each programme and we want to make sure that Speedway continue to be available on demand.

Zengota would be a good option but unfortunately he is already committed to the pairs series and doing the SEC which is mostly on non GP Saturday's when Leicester have all their fixtures. I have a feeling it may be a doubling up rider probably Aaron Summers especially as he has been saying wants more racing and now has British residency so no visa required but will depend on fixture clashes with Glasgow and Sweden on Thursdays. The team needs more top end support though

It was a better performance by Leicester up against a very strong Belle Vue side who I am sure will be up at the top end of the table some really nice friendly fans as well which was good. I thought Paddy rode well for Leicester but in his own words is not an EL no1 the reserves did their part as expected. With the Poles Wozniak score was a bit inflated due to the double and showed more fight. Ullamek just mostly beat Walasek and lower BV riders. I think it will be Walasek that goes but not sure if he will be sacked or will walk out as some fans were saying the riders were not being paid which Is why riding poor I cannot see this personally as their livelihood. If you make changes as has often been said there is very limited options available with many riders not wanting Saturday's and a number of fixture clashes with doubling up riders. I see some on here have mentioned Summers for Walasek he would possibly do a bit better but not honestly the answer to turn the team around however will he want regular Sat nights then up to Glasgow the next day and will the Tigers be happy with that too. During the winter people mentioned about Simon Stead but am sure when I looked there was 10 or so fixture clashes so that would rule him out. We shall have to see which way the club goes but something has to be done before more fans walk away

The strange thing is that Bet 365 spend over £75,000 installing all the satellite uplinks at the tracks just for one season. If somebody wanted to provide a streaming service that is one expense and hurdle already completed as that equipment is still in place at all the tracks I have visited recently

Big Al- It's a bit early for the promotion of the Swindon match as still have a home meeting on Saturday where full details will be given and I am sure there will be an offer to try to get more fans to come to cheer on the Lions and Robins in front of the tv cameras just need some good weather now.

If there is many more performances like so far this season I can see Wozniak considering his options as he will be fully aware that Wroclaw are watching his form in the UK closely to decide whether to pick him for their matches.

I don't think Zengota would be an option even if Leicester were prepared to meet his pay demands as he is already committed to the new best pair series and the SEC rounds so would miss far too many home meetings as these all run on non GP weekends. THJ could be an option as it seems relations between him and his Polish club are very Rocky with another poor performance them threatening to drop him for the season, would he be the answer who knows. I agree Summers would give his all and is good away but you have all the PL clashes and has agreed to ride in Sweden on Thurs so again probably not an option. One rider that could be an option if could get him to do it would be Anders Thomson

It was so disappointing to be at Leicester last night I have never seen so many fans leaving before the end of the meeting along with so many people saying what a waste of money that was. All 3 Polish riders were very poor Ullamek and Walasek really do not seem bothered with the latter giving up if he doesn't make the gate. Wozniak just does not seem the rider he was last season probably due to have more pressure on him as no top end support at the top of the team. Klindt did what was expected and would have had another race win in ht1 if Swidders had not taken out Paddy. It is even more obvious now that this team is not competitive and changes need to be made but who is there out there ? Last night people kept mentioning PL riders doubling up like Stead,Lasse and Summers but far too many fixture clashes I think when I looked Stead would miss 12 matches and Bjerre around 15. I know for a fact that Glasgow would not be happy to have Summers at Leicester every Saturday as too much pressure on man and machine. Could the club settle their differences with Bjarne Pederson or tempt Kenneth Bjerre to do some Saturday nights ? The options do seem very limited but something has to happen before more fans walk away

Do any Lakeside fans know if AJ is riding tonight ? As last season he missed the Elite league riders final and both EL matches ?

I am not sure why the BSPA have taken such a hard nosed approach to this other than to protect their income through the gates. As although they have an exclusive contract with Sky as long as the clubs don't do the filming themselves or promote that you can watch heats online then nothing more would have been said about this. I can see this being very difficult to control especially in the busier tracks I am sure there will still be streams appearing

Start delayed until 8pm hoping to get track done

Good to see the Sheffield promotion bringing in Jason Doyle to ride against his old club Leicester this should make it very interesting now

RMC It's not that Sky don't want to use footage online its just got a limited appeal for most Sky subscribers in general. One of the problems is like most large broadcasters some of the contracting is one size fits all whether its Test match cricket or Weber cup ten pin bowling. The broadcaster will always like to have more covered in the contract than not enough. If Sky did hand the online rights back to BSPA would they then allow Sky to continue to show live and highlights on Sky Go as well as clips on Sky sports websites and phone apps ? I personally think it would be quite difficult for Brtish speedway clubs to stream meetings online and to make it pay to make it worthwhile as you have to factor in the production costs e.g filming the meeting,getting the pictures onto a server to broadcast it then you have all the subscription side of things. I know the bet365 coverage cost over £800 a meeting to do. They could of course do a basic free service using a You tube channel but they have limits on amounts of viewers, both of the above options will take away from the stadium crowds. I would like to see a Speedway highlights show on Sky talks have happened previously but never came to anything but maybe possibly this year if a few things were correct but again would all the video companies provide all their footage for free ?

The broadcast rights for sport did used to be split down seperate for TV and online which in turn meant that you could sell the online rights to a group of companies who would each feature it online but spilt the costs between them. It then all changed in 2013/14 when Sky launched Sky Go which enabled customers to watch Sky sports online and via a mobile. Sky were quite happy at this point to continue to operate like this but one of these groups of companies took Sky to court saying that they didn't have the online rights so when the new contracts were put in place Sky made sure that in the TV rights they had the online rights as well for most sports even now online companies can't show football matches in top leagues live online. The problem Speedway has got is that they need the TV deal so are not in a position to try to get some online rights moved away from the tv contract it was exclusive rights that Sky agreed to. It remains to see how BT sport will fare will GP coverage if its a success which it looks like it will be , I am sure they will be keen to get the elite league from Sky

I have some mixed news to bring you, Now that the channel is public I can confirm in 2016 even more Sky customers will be able to watch Speedway and other sports. A new channel is launching called Sky sports mix it will feature a selection of live and recorded sport including Speedway. The good news is that you don't have to be a Sky sports subscriber to get this new channel it will be available to customers with just the entertainment or variety bundle so even more viewers hopefully. It won't feature every Sky meeting but at least 3 or 4 I have been told of the course of the season. The timing of this is not great for Speedway clubs as the potential viewing audience is going to increase by another few million which may have helped gain more sponsorship for clubs and the league. The not so good news is all pricing is going up in June unless you are on an offer, it may be worth speaking to the call centre who do have a 6months half price sport and movies offer valid at present for people not in contract with no new min term so you can leave at any point. Another offer available is upto 20% off if you have sports,movies,phone and broadband this is for 10 months but is subject to new 12 month contract .Unfortunately I cannot advise of confirmed price rises until Monday as strict embargo but will be around the admission cost of a NL meeting for sports subscribers this making Sky Q even better value for money

Also confirmed that former Lion and Sheffirld no1 Simon Stead will be missing after his crash at the Ben fund meeting last Saturday so hopefully they can get a good replacement for him

Sponsor announced tonight The Leicester Paul Chapman & sons Lions it's good that they have new team sponsor

I expect an annoucement about the new team sponsor for Leicester very shortly and is a name that many will know. Let's hope that Leicester does not get any of the snow predicted on Friday as could do with dry weather to further repair the track

Leicester vs Swindon now Wednesday 13th April the return of Jason Doyle live on Sky sports should be a good match and atmosphere. I just hope we get a clear day and no delays as lighting is not the best at Leicester

No LionKing Sarah is no longer a member of the Leicester back room staff as is stated in this thread ,she has just had a baby so has left her role with the Lions.

One thing for sure I don't think Sarah will be getting a congratulations card from DH after this winter